


A Bath Before Bed

by cloverfield



Category: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: Communal Bathing, F/M, Gen, Implied Relationships, M/M, Post-Series, The Family That Bathes Together Stays Together, Tsubasa World Chronicle - Freeform, hair-washing, meme fill, might-have-been meme
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 16:54:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24490141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cloverfield/pseuds/cloverfield
Summary: Might-Have-Been meme: Onsen Omake“You need a haircut if you can get this knotted up after only a day of work, kid,” Kurogane mutters, and he’s not exactly gentle as he rubs froth beneath his fingers and into Syaoran’s tangled hair - but he’s not rough about it either, the firm touch kind of comforting in a way.It’s been years since anyone washed Syaoran’s hair for him - his mother, maybe, when he was too small to bathe alone, and without thinking about it Syaoran sighs a little, the sound echoing up off smooth tile and through the wet ringing in his ears, foam dripping down the side of his face.
Relationships: Fay D. Fluorite/Kurogane, Kurogane & Syaoran, Syaoran & Fai
Comments: 4
Kudos: 65





	A Bath Before Bed

**Author's Note:**

> A scene from the Might-Have-Been meme: if the boys had had a chance for a bath before bed in the Onsen Omake of Tsubasa World Chronicle.

It’s not something Syaoran ever thought would happen, and yet here he sits: knees knocking together and the small wooden stool hard beneath him as Kurogane’s fingernails scrape shampoo against his scalp, the older man grumbling under his breath as he digs his fingers into Syaoran’s hair.

“You need a haircut if you can get this knotted up after only a day of work, kid,” Kurogane mutters, and he’s not exactly gentle as he rubs froth beneath his fingers and into Syaoran’s tangled hair - but he’s not rough about it either, the firm touch kind of comforting in a way.

It’s been years since anyone washed Syaoran’s hair for him - his mother, maybe, when he was too small to bathe alone, and without thinking about it Syaoran sighs a little, the sound echoing up off smooth tile and through the wet ringing in his ears, foam dripping down the side of his face.

(He still remembers, what it was like - mother laughing, and the tub just barely big enough for both of them, her hair curling wet around her ears and father smiling as he knelt beside the bath and tipped the water over them both with bare hands and shirt rolled up to his elbows; he still remembers being rubbed down with a soft towel in front of the fire afterwards and being bundled up in his pyjamas, father buttoning up his clothes as mother hummed soft and warm and cosy beside them while she draped herself in her robes, and the weight of her smile had felt like a blanket wrapped gentle around him against the cool of the night.)

“Feels kinda nice,” he mumbles, and the soft _heh_ behind him says he voiced that thought out loud.

It _is_ nice, though, that’s the thing - and maybe he says that out loud too, because Kurogane chuckles properly this time, and flicks him in the back of the head, just hard enough to make Syaoran flinch, the laugh startled out of his chest and ringing across the high walls of the bathing chamber.

“Kuro-sama gives the best head massages,” and that’s Fai, yawning as he opens the sliding doors with a wooden rattle, padding across wet tile with slow and slapping steps, stretching up so his bare stomach flashes white above the knot of his towel. “Don’t you?”

Kurogane mumbles something that could be _whatever, idiot_ and then drags his thumbs down the back of Syaoran’s neck. “You’re all tense here, kid,” he mutters, fingers digging in, and Syaoran grunts into the pressure against taut muscle as those strong hands knead. “You need to start doing stretches with me in the morning again - you’ll hurt yourself if you work all day with a stiff neck.”

“Mmkay,” and that’s all Syaoran can manage as broad hands wrap his shoulders, pressing and pulling until he can feel the knots melting beneath the weight of Kurogane’s palms, the firm press of callused fingers sliding against the slick of shampoo. Bubbles drip from Syaoran’s hair, splatter wet against his knees, and there’s a clatter as another stool is set down on the tiles beside him, Fai taking a seat with his wash cloth in his lap and his legs long and pale stretching out before him.

“I can’t wait to soak in that big bath,” sighs Fai, and dumps a waiting basin of water over himself with a _sploosh._ “Wah- _cold!_ ”

Kurogane snorts. “It _would_ have been warm if you didn’t take your time getting here, idiot.”

“Ah - but I was helping Caldina-chan with the last of the day’s takings and-”

“We said a bath at nine, didn’t we? Then it’s your own damn fault for getting cold water. _Tch_.”

“Kuro-sama is so _cruel_! Syaoran, your father doesn’t love me anymore - whatever shall I _do?_ ”

“ _Tch!_ ”

Syaoran closes his eyes, Kurogane’s hands leaving his shoulders, and the rush of water that falls over his head as Kurogane tips up a basin of still-steaming water, fresh from the tap, streams away froth as it pours down his back, his face, dripping to his legs in warm and soothing splatters.

“It’s your own fault, Fai,” Syaoran says, when he wipes his face clear of the last of it, and laughs at the heartbroken wail that comes from the man beside him.

“ _Ah! Like father, like son!_ ”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm such a sucker for the communal bathing trope. Also, it's just really nice having someone wash your hair for you - my mother washed my hair for me after two days in hospital post-surgery last year, and I honestly felt like a new human being afterwards.


End file.
